WINONA, Minn. — Before the season started last year — in fact, even before the Cardinals had arrived for the first day of practice — Saint Mary’s University men’s soccer coach Eric Luzzi was confident that the 2003 season was going to be a breakthrough year.

The Cardinals were returning a veteran group — including eight seniors, all of which had seen significant playing time since their freshman seasons — and Luzzi’s recruiting class was one of the best in years.

The pieces were all there, all Luzzi had to do was fit them all together.

Unfortunately for Luzzi and the Cardinals, that turned out to be like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

No matter how hard the Cardinals played — no matter how much they dominated an opponent — the ball never seemed to bounce their way.

“I’m not about to make excuses for last year — in fact, it’s a year I’d like to wipe from my long-term memory,” said Luzzi, whose team dropped its first seven games — getting outscored 21-1 — before rallying to go 4-3-2 over its last nine games to finish 4-10-2 overall. “We got off on the wrong foot last year, and we never really seemed to get back on track. I thought we played pretty well late in the season, but by that time, the hole we had dug for ourselves was too deep to get out of.”

And buried in that hole with the Cardinals was their hopes of a berth in the first-ever MIAC post-season tournament.

“We had high hopes for last year — I really thought we could make a run at the top teams in the conference,” admitted Luzzi. “We just weren’t able to handle the adversity that came our way.”

This year, Luzzi hopes, will be different.

“We want to be playing into November, there’s no denying that,” said Luzzi. “But we aren’t going to keep harping on that every day, day-in and day-out.

“Last year I think we found ourselves too caught up in that goal (of making the MIAC tournament), and everytime something went wrong, we pressed that much more,” continued Luzzi. “This year, we’re going to focus on the little things, those things that, if we do them well, will get us where we want to be at the end of the season.”

Among those “little things” is developing a new team identity. Without Mike Lackey, Michael Lardner, Jason Grinnell and the rest of the eight graduated seniors to be the emotional and physical leaders, Luzzi knows that he’s going to need some underclassmen to step into the leadership role and help mold this team into a playoff contender.

“We had such great senior leadership last year — both on the field and off,” Luzzi said. “But those guys are gone and we have to move forward. This team has to find its own personality, its own identity — and I think we have a number of players who can step into that leadership role and show the rest of the players the way.”

Among those leaders will be seniors Bob Endemann (Woodridge, Ill.), Jim Callinan (Cottage Grove, Minn.) and Brian Reddish (Crystal Lake, Ill.), and juniors Mike Boland (Lake Zurich, Ill.) and Mark Matyas (DePere, Wis.).

“We’re going to be a young team in terms to grade, but we had a lot of freshmen and sophomores see significant playing time last year,” said Luzzi, noting that of his 19 players, only two are seniors. “If we are going to be successful, everyone is going to have to be on the same page — committed to doing whatever it takes.

“We’re going to be like the (gold medal-winning) 1980 Olympic hockey team, the team that nobody expects too much out of — the little fish in the big MIAC pond,” Luzzi added. “Our attitude is simple — it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past, we’re going to play to the best of our ability every day. As a coaching staff, that’s all we can ask of our players. And as players, if they leave everything on the field – never give anything less than 100 percent — that’s all they can ask of themselves.”